Positioning the New Orleans Hornets in the 'Who dat?' City.

Apostolopoulou, Artemisia ; Biggers, Matt

Introduction

As Kim walked in her office on a bright May morning she saw the newspapers on her desk. Since her college years it had been part of her morning routine to check the news headlines--more so now that she found herself in the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the New Orleans Hornets of the National Basketball Association. Every day she looked through the newspapers to see how her team was being covered by local and national media.

Not surprisingly, in the past few months local media outlets had been overcrowded by stories covering the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl triumph. As a native of New Orleans, she could not help but share in the pride and euphoria surrounding this great accomplishment. But as a member of the Hornets organization she pondered over how the success of their next-door neighbor would impact the ability to sell their team. Since their original move to Louisiana, the Hornets had experienced many highs and lows, but had yet to get close to an NBA Championship. Would the success of the Saints bring more attention to the city of New Orleans from fans, businesses, and the media and have a positive impact on not only the Saints but other local sport organizations as well? Or would this achievement take attention and investment potential away from her team and make the Hornets' product appear second-rate?

This most recent season had not been what everyone had hoped for, especially on the court, and Kim had already started thinking about the opportunity that next season could bring. In fact, she had called a meeting for later this month with members of the marketing and sales departments to discuss some critical issues facing their organization. Her main focus was on how to position the Hornets in a market that also served as home to the National Football League champions. In her communication with team staff she had mentioned that their goal would be to develop a brand positioning strategy that would help their franchise gain competitive advantage and achieve profitability in terms of ticket, sponsorship, and media sales. She realized that in order to reach that goal they would have to initially perform a thorough analysis of their organization as well as their market and identify franchise attributes upon which a unique selling proposition could be formed. Once that was accomplished, their task would then be to design a brand message that would serve as a springboard for all their communications, marketing, and sales efforts. Developing strategies and tactics to communicate that message to target markets and key business partners would also be an important undertaking.

She realized that all this would involve a lot of work and much creativity. Furthermore, whatever positioning they settled on would have to take into account the unique history of their franchise, the distinct challenges of their market and of the general business environment, as well as the powerful forces against which they were competing. In preparation for that meeting she began gathering information on the Hornets franchise and their market that she planned to share with her staff.

A Team of Many Cities

No other team in sports has had to endure the relocation odyssey that the New Orleans franchise has lived through. The Hornets were born when North Carolina businessman George Shinn was awarded one of four NBA expansion franchises on April 1, 1987, and began play in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1988. As the owner of the team from its inception and the subsequent 14 seasons in Charlotte, Shinn officially filed an application with the NBA on January 17, 2002, to move the Hornets to New Orleans, Louisiana, beginning with the 2002-03 season. Four months later, the NBA's Board of Governors unanimously endorsed the Relocation Committee's recommendation to move the team from Charlotte, and the New Orleans Hornets were born.

Shinn's leadership and resolve once again came to the forefront when the Hornets were faced with per haps the biggest challenge in franchise history. In the aftermath of the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina, he was able to work with the NBA to secure the team a temporary home in Oklahoma City for the 2005-06 season. Under his leadership, the Hornets turned a potentially devastating situation into one of sports' most uplifting success stories when they finished 11th in the league in attendance. The 2006-07 season was again split between New Orleans and Oklahoma City, and Shinn's business and marketing acumen were key to successfully executing games, special events, and charitable efforts in both cities.

In the summer of 2007, Shinn brought the Hornets back to Louisiana on a full-time basis and focused his efforts on three goals: the successful relocation of his business, the rebuilding of New Orleans, and bringing an NBA championship to the state of Louisiana. In each of the three markets (Charlotte, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City), Shinn helped cultivate a love for the NBA, which resulted in each city receiving its own franchise.

The 2007-08 season in New Orleans was a pivotal year for the franchise. Re-entering the market after being away for two years provided challenges most sport teams never face. The Hornets had the task of getting a city that was still in the midst of recovery to acknowledge that NBA basketball was back in town full-time. The Hornets recognized that the way they had done business in the past would not be enough if they wanted to be successful. The franchise went through a transformation from defining itself as an NBA team that happened to be in New Orleans, to a team that was a New Orleans business that happened to be in the NBA. Focus and emphasis was placed on connecting to the people of the city, embracing their culture, being authentic in everything they did, and showing pride in the role they coveted as a global ambassador for the city of New Orleans. Out of this was born the branding that this team would represent: "Passion. Purpose. Pride."

We view "Passion. Purpose. Pride." as much more than a slogan. These words are the bedrock of what our brand stands for. It was birthed out of a process we went through internally when defining our mission statement (which we call our "We Are" statement) when we returned to New Orleans before the 2007-08 season. The "We Are" statement more deeply defines our core values and the pillars that we were going to stand for and use when making decisions. But that statement is longer, wordy, and aimed internally, not something that is easily communicated to our fans. So we tried to come up with the words that are the essence of that mission, and thus "Passion. Purpose. Pride." was born. Since that time, we have very consistently incorporated it into all of our marketing and communication vehicles and strategies, and it continues today. While "Passion. Purpose. Pride." is our brand defining statement, we do use message overlays where appropriate to drive specific sales and initiatives. One example is "A Ticket Plan for Every Fan" that we used in conjunction with advertising to promote the variety of ticket plan options we have. (M. Biggers, personal communication, July 9, 2010)

Even with the deeper connection to the community, success was a slow process. The beginning two months of the 2007-08 season included lack of awareness of the team's full-time return despite promotional efforts. Ticket sales were extremely low and announced crowds were routinely less than 10,000 fans per night. But doing the right things and staying consistent soon paid off. The team on the floor was extremely competitive, winning big games throughout the month of January and piquing the interest of fans. Then in February 2008 the NBA hosted its All-Star Weekend extravaganza in New Orleans, which provided a global platform to show the world the resilience of New Orleans as an NBA city. The media momentum, coupled with the continued stellar play of Chris Paul and David West, led the Hornets to end the season with 15 consecutive sellouts to go along with the franchise-best 56 wins. The team won the Southwest Division title for the first time and helped turn New Orleans into a basketball city.

The magical success of the 2007-08 season helped the Hornets generate an NBA leading 6,000 new full season tickets, and an overall base of 10,000 season ticket holders, heading into the 2008-09 season. The team continued its emphasis on representing the soul of the city of New Orleans from a marketing standpoint as it introduced new logos, including the popular Fleur de Bee based on the popular city mark of a Fleur-de-Lis, new colors, and new uniforms. Furthermore, a variety of programs continued to be offered to the New Orleans community by the Hornets organization, the owner, and by individual players. Those programs were designed to bring awareness and support to a variety of causes, ranging from literacy and general education to health and fitness. Efforts to assist in the recovery of the city from the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina also took center stage in the Hornets' community relations initiatives. "Passion. Purpose. Pride." was alive and well.

The New Orleans Market

New Orleans is often said to be the most unique city in the United States. It is a city that has a deep heritage, with generations of families living in the area for hundreds of years. People from New Orleans are very proud of their city, an affinity that deepened coming out of Hurricane Katrina. If a business is part of the fabric of New Orleans and successful, the people in New Orleans support that business more avidly than possibly anywhere else in the country.

New Orleans has always been a football town, with local fans supporting not only the NFL's Saints, but also the Tigers of nearby Louisiana State University (LSU). While LSU has had extensive success on the field, the Saints have been a team of hard luck and misfortune; however, through all of the franchise's woes, the people of New Orleans supported the team that was theirs. This love affair with the Saints shot to an unbelievable high when they fulfilled their role as a team of destiny and won the 2010 Super Bowl. This lifelong dream of many New Orleans locals manifested itself in celebrations and parades unlike anything the city had ever seen, including Mardi Gras, and chants of "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat?" sounded throughout the country. Coming off this success and heading into the 2010 season, interest and adoration for anything Saints was at an all-time high.

A city rich in mystique and culture, expressed throughout its many attractions and entertainment offerings, New Orleans today is a place where recovery from Katrina is still an on-going process. Much of the city is up and running not only at full strength but, in many cases, better than ever. Other parts of the city, like New Orleans East, look like the hurricane hit last week as recovery has been slow or non-existent. As a brand, the city and region have been diligently trying to restore their image in hopes of continuing to revitalize the tourist and convention business, which is an essential industry for New Orleans. The market continues to try and attract businesses to return to the area, noting that only one Fortune 500 company calls the region home. As the 51st largest US media market, New Orleans is the smallest city in the country to have two major league sports franchises.

As New Orleans has continued its recovery efforts, tragedy struck the region once again. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig operated for British Petroleum exploded, leading to one of the largest oil disasters in world history. The ecological and economical impact of the spill will be felt by residents of the area for quite some time, with the ultimate impact of the accident impossible to assess; nevertheless, this accident has dramatically affected the lives and livelihoods of many in the region both directly and indirectly.

2009-10 Season

While success off the court was being achieved during the 2008-09 season, play on the court came to a bitter, abrupt end during the 2009 playoffs when the Hornets were knocked out by the Denver Nuggets in five games, including a historically embarrassing 58-point loss at home. The way the season ended raised questions in fans' minds about the direction the team was heading; consequently, some erosion of the season ticket base began. Many fans who had overcommitted themselves during the euphoria of the previous season's playoff run with season ticket packages that weren't right for them started to downgrade or drop seats altogether.

The 2009-10 season got off to a rough start, when after a lackluster start in the first two weeks of the season, head coach Byron Scott was fired and replaced on the sideline by general manager Jeff Bower. In Bower's first game as coach, superstar Chris Paul was injured and subsequently missed weeks of play. After his return, the Hornets started to turn it around in January, winning a franchise record 16 games in that month, until another unfortunate injury to Paul occurred. In total, the star guard missed 38 games, contributing to the Hornets missing the playoffs for the first time since their return to New Orleans. The only silver lining to an otherwise forgettable season was the emergence of rookies Darren Collision and Marcus Thornton, who established themselves as bona fide NBA players by making the NBA's All-Rookie teams.

Despite the challenges on the court, games at "The Hive" remained a great entertainment value. In the annual survey of fans conducted by the NBA, the Hornets' game presentation entertainment was ranked first in the league for both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. With an emphasis on crowd involvement, constant entertainment, and a "fans first" approach, Hornets games continued to get great reviews from local fans as an entertainment experience. Ticket prices remained the most affordable in the NBA and the fans who came still loved their Hornets. According to the NBA's Vice President of Team Ticket Sales:

The Hornets have done a terrific job being proactive with the demand and interest created by the Saints' Super Bowl Championship by increasing their focus with youth basketball, schools, churches, and non-profit organizations; by expanding their grass roots school Bookmobile program from seven to 25 school appearances this season; by teaching, training, and developing their entry level sales team to drive more B2B sales; and by adding additional resources to focus on the tourism and convention market. (M. Cohn, personal communication, July 13,2010)

While the Hornets brand remains strong, the dissatisfaction with the play on the court has led many fans in the current economic climate to take a "wait and see" approach to their ticket commitments for next season.

Brand Equity and Brand Positioning: A Theoretical Approach

Considering this information about the path of the New Orleans Hornets, their on-court successes and shortcomings, as well as the unique characteristics of their market and the competition they face, a number of issues arise: What is the image of the Hornets franchise as seen by key constituencies and how does that image impact the performance of the team at the box office? What, if any, are those characteristics that distinguish the Hornets from other sport organizations in the New Orleans market? How can the franchise build on its competencies to develop a message and a unique value proposition that will draw support from various consumer and corporate groups? In order for the Hornets to remain competitive on and off the court they must focus on strengthening their brand and aggressively pursuing a viable share of the New Orleans sport and entertainment market. Given the recent success of the Saints, the Hornets' positioning strategy needs to focus on communicating to current and prospective consumers the value of investing in a relationship with their team and the ability of the team to satisfy their needs better than the competition.

In attempting to address these issues, research on brand equity and brand positioning can offer helpful guidance. Brand equity in particular is a concept that has been thoroughly examined as an indicator of organizational strength. It refers to positive and/or negative aspects that positively and/or negatively influence the value of a brand (Aaker, 1991). A brand is said to have high levels of equity when consumers' awareness about the brand is high, making it easily recognizable; when perceptions about its quality are favorable; when consumers have positive thoughts and emotions toward that brand; and when the following of the brand is loyal (Aaker, 1991).

Brand associations are defined as all those thoughts, feelings, emotions that come to mind at the thought of a brand and constitute the meaning people attribute to a brand (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993). Generated by a variety of sources, brand associations are classified as product- and non-product-related attributes; functional, experiential, and symbolic benefits; and brand attitudes, and are evaluated based on their favorability, their strength, and their uniqueness (Keller, 1993). The goal of marketers should be to develop the conditions for consumers to interact with and experience the brand in a way that will lead to the creation of favorable, strong, and unique associations. Those associations can then serve to differentiate the brand from its competition and ultimately lead to high levels of consumer loyalty (Aaker, 1991; Da Silva & Alwi, 2008; Hung, 2008). To that end, unique brand associations play a particularly significant role because by capturing what is different about the brand, they can suggest brand superiority and support a unique selling proposition (Keller, 1993). Moreover, when developing a positioning strategy, marketers ought to consider not only their target market and the ways in which their brand is different or better than the competition, but also whether those differences are relevant to the target market and communicated effectively by the brand (Gwin & Gwin, 2003). As Aaker (1998) argues, "a differentiation strategy must add value to the customer, and the added value must be perceived by the customer" (pp. 164-165).

Collectively, brand associations work to form a brand's image. Image has been defined as "the sum of beliefs, attitudes, and impressions that a person or group has of an object. The object may be a company, product, brand, place, or person. The impressions may be true or false, real or imagined. Right or wrong, images guide and shape behavior" (Barich & Kotler, 1991, p. 95). Consumers develop beliefs about a brand's image based on personal experience with a brand and its staff, exposure to promotional and public relations campaigns, knowledge about a brand's social behavior, even perceptions about the brand's competition (e.g., Abratt, 1989; Bick, Jacobson, & Abratt, 2003; Burke & Berry, 1974/75; Fillis, 2003; Hatch & Schultz, 1997; Kennedy, 1977; Schuler, 2004). And consumers often rely on a brand's image to make purchase decisions or establish any business relationship with that organization (Schuler, 2004). In fact, it is the image and overall cultural meaning of products and brands which consumers wish to transfer to themselves that justify a great deal of purchases made (McCracken, 1986).

Even though brand image rests mainly in the minds of the public, the marketer can still invest in promotional and communications efforts aiming to reinforce desirable image dimensions by informing the public about a brand's goals, its attributes, and its work (Gwin & Gwin, 2003; Schuler, 2004). Furthermore, Keller (1993) argues that marketing efforts can shape a brand's image by translating brand "attributes into their corresponding benefits for consumers" (p. 10). For example, an advertising campaign that incorporates images of fans interacting with family members and friends and having a good time while attending a sport event shows prospective fans how their need for socialization and entertainment can be satisfied through their sport attendance.

Lassen, Kunde, and Gioia (2008) offer guidelines for companies operating with limited budgets to achieve a strong position in their market. They propose that in order to build a strong brand a company must first study the essence of their brand by identifying their unique characteristics and reasons for which consumers choose them over the competition. Equally as imperative is a focus on the right consumers and appropriate media, the design and implementation of a communications strategy, and the periodical revitalization of the brand. A focal point in Lassen et al.'s (2008) proposal is the development of a concept that will embody the essence of the brand and will drive all communications efforts. This point is also supported by Nandan (2005), who argues in favor of consistency and uniformity in the message a brand puts forth to its consumers by the use of well coordinated promotional mix elements. However, as the author states, "value for the firm as well as the consumer can be created only when the consumer understands and appreciates the brand message. The brand also has to be perceived to be addressing consumer needs better than the competition" (p. 270).

Brand Equity in Sport

It has been argued quite convincingly that sport properties (e.g., athletes, teams, leagues, events, venues, etc.) are also brands that need to follow popular brand management principles in order to fully capitalize on their commercial potential and weather challenging market conditions (Gladden, Irwin, & Sutton, 2001). If achieved, high levels of brand equity can assist a sport organization in a number of ways, not the least of which is by providing a franchise with some insulation when team performance is below expectations and the ability to continue to charge premium prices for its products. Sport organizations with high levels of equity also have a strong platform from which to introduce licensing programs and other line and brand extensions. Additionally, they are attractive business partners to corporations, sponsors, and the media (Gladden, 2007).

The sport marketing literature includes a number of research efforts that examine brand equity or one of its components in the sport setting (e.g., Boone, Kochunny, & Wilkins, 1995; Gladden & Funk, 2001, 2002; Gladden & Milne, 1999; Gladden, Milne, & Sutton, 1998; Ross, 2006, 2007; Ross, James, & Vargas, 2006), or the related topic of sport brand personality (e.g., Braunstein & Ross, 2010; Heere, 2010; Ross, 2008). Most of this work has accounted for many of the unique characteristics of the sport product as well as the personal and emotional nature of the relationship between sport brands and their consumers. In one of those studies, Gladden et al. (1998) proposed a framework for managing brand equity in Division I college athletics--and the principles discussed in that work can certainly guide the framework's adoption to other sport settings. The authors present a variety of team-, organization-, and market-related elements (antecedents) that can positively or negatively impact each or all of the components of brand equity, leading to a number of outcomes (consequences). The culminating effect of all elements of this framework results in positive or negative perceptions formed in consumers' minds about the brand. Those perceptions that result from the manipulation of the components of brand equity are important not only because they can influence antecedents but also because they become the basis for the formation of that brand's image.

The challenge with the proposed framework is that many of the antecedents, especially those linked to the team, are not within the direct control of the sport marketer and can hinder efforts to strengthen the team brand. Losing a super-star player, producing mediocre on-the-field performances, and handling scandals involving team staff are just a few of the situations that can negatively affect consumers' perceived value of a team brand. Competition within a market could also negatively influence the ability of a team to be seen as an attractive option or to strengthen loyalty among current and potential fans. In the case of the New Orleans Hornets, for example, competing in the same market as the Super Bowl Champion Saints can become a very challenging hurdle in the team's efforts to strengthen its own brand and command a significant share of the market. The sport marketer needs to focus branding efforts on the controllable aspects of a brand and through the strategic manipulation of marketing mix elements highlight emotional facets of the consumption experience and strengthen the personal relationship between the sport brand, fans, and partners.

Other highlights from sport branding studies include frameworks that aim to identify dimensions--sources of brand associations of sport brands, specifically the "Team Association Model" (by Gladden & Funk, 2002) and the "Team Brand Association Scale" (by Ross et al., 2006). One point worth stressing here is the role that fan identification can play in generating brand associations. Fan identification, defined as sport consumers' emotional involvement with and psychological connection to a team (Sutton, McDonald, Milne, & Cimperman, 1997; Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001), has been linked to a variety of sport consumer behaviors ranging from game attendance and viewership to the purchase and display of sport licensed merchandise (e.g., Kwon & Armstrong, 2006; Trail, Anderson, & Fink, 2000; Wann & Branscombe, 1993) and is considered a symbolic benefit of sport consumption (Gladden & Funk, 2002). In their study that explored the relationship between brand associations and brand loyalty, Gladden and Funk (2001) found that fan identification accounted for a significant portion of the explained variance of brand loyalty. Sport marketers should thus design and promote opportunities for interaction among fans and the team/athletes and invest in fan appreciation and relationship building initiatives in an effort to strengthen fans' emotional connection to their team. Doing so will help generate favorable, strong, and unique brand associations, improve brand image, and lead to high levels of fan loyalty.

Conclusion

The day for the meeting had arrived. Kim delivered a thorough presentation of all the information she had gathered. She then tasked her staff with designing a solid strategy on how to position the Hornets in the upcoming 2010-11 season and developing a fresh and catchy brand message. After being given a list of issues to work on, staff members from the marketing and sales departments were divided in groups and instructed to commence their work. Each group's ideas and proposed strategies and tactics would be presented in the coming weeks to senior management members of the Hornets organization. Kim was confident that next season would bring a new vision and much success to her organization.

Editor's Note: Teaching notes for this case study are available at www.fitinfotech.com.

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Artemisia Apostolopoulou, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management in the Robert Morris University School of Business. Her research interests include branding and brand extension strategies, sport sponsorship, and the fusion of sport and entertainment.

Matt Biggers is the senior vice president of marketing and communications with the New Orleans Hornets of the National Basketball Association.